Method and apparatus for caries detection

A method, the method comprising:

• receiving or collecting a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) intraoral scanner images of a patient's teeth, wherein each image comprises two or more channels, including a near-infrared (near-IR) and a visible light channel;
• identifying, for each image of the plurality of 2D intraoral scanner images, a caries center for any carries in the images using a trained pattern matching agent that is trained to use the two or more channels of each image;
• confirming that the caries center corresponds to a carries based on a comparison of a subset of images of the plurality of 2D intraoral scanner images having an overlapping view of a region of a tooth including the caries center, wherein each of the plurality of images is taken from a different camera angle;
• projecting the confirmed caries centers onto a three-dimensional model of the patient's teeth;
• aggregating the projected caries centers to determine a consensus caries center for each of one or more caries based on the projected confirmed caries centers;
• and
• outputting an indicator of one or more caries based on the consensus caries centers.

An intraoral scanning system, the system comprising:

• a wand comprising a near-infrared (near-IR) light source and one or more cameras;
• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing computer-program instructions, that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processor to:
• access a plurality of near-infrared (near-IR) images of a subject's teeth taken by the wand;
• score each near-IR image of the plurality of near-IR images to provide on a likelihood that a caries is visible in the near-IR image based on one or more features describing a relationship between one or more reference points in an interproximal region of a tooth in the near-IR image and one or more camera parameters of a camera taking the near-IR image by:
• identifying, for each image of the plurality of near-IR images, the one or more reference points, a normal to the reference point relative to the tooth, and a camera angle of the camera taking the near-IR images, and estimating an angle between the normal and the camera angle;
• and
• display near-IR images from the plurality of near-IR images based on the scores.